My 4 year old son just phoned to say that he doesn’t want to watch the ads and can I turn them off when I get home.

At first I was a little offended in that I’ve spent the best part of the last 25 years planning and crafting campaigns and today they still pay a good proportion of our mortgage. But then I got to thinking that I’m a little glad of his present addiction to C-Beebies and his disdain for the ads that interrupt his viewing on the other side.

Pester power from kids and the guilt that one might say “No” to fulfilling their every desire, are very powerful opposing weapons in the parenting armoury. Yet, they’re equally powerful weapons in the constructing of campaigns and should be handled sensitively.

So we make our ads appealing, our executions believable, implicitly invite the little ones to be part of the club and if we’re canny, we make our call to action at this time of year appear time sensitive.

But our credibility as practitioners of the craft is at stake if we aren’t also cognisant of communicating the brand’s values and the need to establish trust for the parent as much as for the child. 

As parents, along with most others, we are similarly cynical throughout the year of ads designed to capture our kids’ imaginations, without a thought given to the battle of wills that takes place in the home.

Yet at this time of year, we might seem to some to be blinded by the lights, as some ads fail to deliver the trust, let alone fulfil our need to post rationalise the purchase.

So, advertisers - client and agency alike - have a thought: When it comes to non-seasonal purchases from the same brand, when a birthday comes along, will we feel as we might have done about the brand?